Start The Day Global – a round-up of some of the myriad international publishing stories that there isn’t time to develop in full, or that have been well-covered by other industry journals and warrant a referral here.
We start the day global today in Libya, perhaps one of the less frequent countries to pop up in the TNPS overviews of global publishing.
KSA Ambassador to Lebanon Visits Tripoli 45th Book Fair Edition is the headline for a short info-piece from the Saudi Arabia News Express.
There’s very little to go on here
Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to Lebanon Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari visited the 45th Book Fair, held by the Cultural Association, at Rashid Karami exhibition venue, in Tripoli today.
Despite best efforts I’ve been unable to find any meaningful coverage about the 45th Tripoli Book Fair beyond lists of dignitaries attending. If anyone can point me in the direction of anything more substantial I’d love to give the event some further coverage.
From Libya to China, not so long ago widely viewed by the west as a publishing pariah state, but now a welcome member of the international publishing community that offers exciting opportunities to publishers willing to go the extra mile to engage.
Civil reading in China is the subject.today.
The 2019 civil reading event was launched on April 20 in Beijing to promote reading among the public.
The event, including recitation and book recommendation activities, will focus on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the organizer of the event said.
During the World Book and Copyright Day which falls on April 23, public poetry recitation and classics reading events will also be held in Beijing.
More than 30,000 reading events were held last year, benefiting over 10 million readers.
The 2019 Beijing book fair was also launched on April 20.
The 2019 Beijing Book Fair (opened) in Chaoyang Park on Friday and run until April 29, with participation from 300 domestic publishers to display around 500,000 of their publications.
Themed on the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic China (PRC), the event will feature over 100 activities including book signings, lectures, readings, and film screenings.
During this year’s event, the used book market will expand its area to around 400 square meters. It will include an area for visitors to exchange books among themselves as well as a business section for bookshops and publishers, where people can choose from around 10,000 publications.
To be clear, there are numerous Beijing book fairs through the year, and none should be confused with the Beijing International Book Fair which runs August 21-25 this year.
Read more here, here, here and here.
Pakistan is also in our spotlight today, with the Islamabad 3-day National Book Mela, an annual event organised by the National Book Foundation (NBF) and National History and Literary Heritage Division (NHLH).
Reports Pakistan’s Tribune:
This year the event is being celebrated under the theme “KitabTaleemi Tarraqqi Ki Zamin” where more than 180 book sellers and publishers have set up their stalls from across the country.
NBF Managing Director Dr Inam-ul-Haq Javeid, on the occasion, said the amount of passion the visitors showed at the event, highlighted people’s love for book reading.
A love of reading in Pakistan? That really shouldn’t come as a surprise to regulars here at TNPS, where we’ve often covered Pakistan’s many book fairs and festivals.
And now we can add Big Bad Wolf to the equation..
Big Bad Wolf debuted in Pakistan this past week, with an eleven day 24-hour non-stop book sale in Lahore, where the Big Bad Wolf team have shipped 1 million new English-language books, and by all accounts visitors are flocking to the event.
Read more about Big Bad Wolf in our preview post on TNPS:
While publishers look the other way Big Bad Wolf takes 1 million English-language books to Pakistan
We’ll bring updates on the event as news comes in.
Finally for today to South Africa, where submissions are open (with a July 31 deadline) for the Geko Mofolo Prize.
The Geko Mofolo Prize for Outstanding Fiction in Sesotho is for,
Basotho in the continent and in the diaspora. Manuscripts are accepted from all over the world – for fiction written in all Sesotho dialects and orthographies.
The prize is intended to re-ignite interest and efforts in the reading and writing of new, imaginative, outstanding and original fiction in Sesotho in the new and modern age. The work can be about any subject, theme or story.
The Geko Mofolo Prize, the winner of which will be announced in South Africa in September, is named for the language’s best-known author, Lesotho-born Thomas Mokopu Mofolo, who died in 1948.
